TEST 4 Read the following newspaper article and then answer questions 1-6.

Indicate the
letter, A, B, C or D of each question. Give only one answer to each question.

OUR FEATURES MAY REVEAL HIDDEN TALENTS

At first glance, you would be hard put to find any common ground between the angry
features of Beethoven and the shy boyishness of Prince Harry. Of course, if you were Karl Smith,
emeritus professor of psychology at America's Wisconsin - Madison University, and had spent 15
years in research, you would know that both are left-faced.
"Facedness" is the new theory that proposes, just as most of us are either left-handed or
right-handed, we have a more dominant facial side. It also claims to reveal the physiognomy of
musical genius. Left-facers, according to Smith's studies, are better able to tune into the right side of
the brain, which is associated with musical performance, while right-facers tap into the left
hemisphere, which is specialised for cognitive process - to the layman, thinking.
His surveys show that 85-90% of people are right-faced. 'With rare exceptions, all musically
talented people are left-faced,' he says. Wagner has one of the most marked left-faces that Smith has
looked at, 'dominant to the point of deformity'. He is joined by Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms,
Schubert, Tchaikovsky and Liszt. 'I have yet to come across a great musical talent who is not left-
faced, ' says Smith. His work at New York's Metropolitan Opera shows that over 98% of opera
singers of a 50-year period have been left-faced. Most contemporary musicians looked at also had a
dominant left side, from jazz musicians to pop stars. 'The Beatles were all left-faced,' says Smith,
whose work suggests that facedness ratios are the same in Europe as in the United States. Prince
Harry is the only member of the royal family who may have a career in music as a left-facer.
'Parents should not be wasting their money on right-faced children,' says Smith. It is not,
contrary to popular belief, hands or ears that will suggest a Mozart' in the making, but facial
features. The test for dominance is simple. Researchers measured signals from muscles and
recorded resistance changes in jaw and tip movements. But simply looking in a mirror will: reveal a
larger, more muscular side that is more flexible in speech and has a deeper dimple when you smile.
The eyebrow will be higher and the skin smoother.
But right-facers should not despair. Dexterity in cognitive processes means that most great
mathematicians and scientists have been dominant on the right. 'The marked right-facedness of
Einstein is remarkable.' says Smith. Right-facers also have the edge in speech. Most great orators
and all British prime ministers have been right-side dominant, from Walpole to Thatcher. And we
have yet to see a pope or monarch cloaking musical genius.
While left-facers have a better control of vowels, right-facers have the hold on consonants.
Smith can recall no American newsreader who has been left-faced. Actors should also be looking
for a higher right brow, since most of the greats have been right-faced – such as Richard Burton.
Smith's theory also maintains that right-facers make better dancers and athletes. They
depend on a highly articulate understanding of movement and cognition.
All athletes in the last Olympics were right-faced, he found, and a study of the Chicago and
New York ballets showed 99% of dancers were right-faced. The one group of people who did not
fall clearly into right or left were painters.
'The evidence has been astoundingly consistent right across the board,' says Smith. As a
music lover, he is reconciling himself to his own right-facedness.
Unlike handedness, which develops at the age of three or four, facedness is determined
before birth. For would-be composers and politicians there is no defying facedness, and parents
should take note before signing up hopeful youngsters for music lessons - a glance in the mirror will
tell if the expense will be worth it.
 OUR FEATURES MAY REVEAL HIDDEN TALENTS

1 What does the writer suggest about a first comparison between the faces of Beethoven and
Prince Harry?
A They seem to have a lot of similar features.
B They look completely different.
C They're both left-faced.
D They're both right-faced.

2 Among left-facers, Wagner is said to be

A an extremely attractive example.
B a faulty example.
C an unusually clear example.
D a typical example.

3 What is different about the side of the face that is dominant?

A There are more wrinkles.
B It moves more easily.
C It is flatter.
D The eyebrow is thicker.

4 What advantage do right-faced people often have?

A They are optimistic.
B They are successful athletes.
C They pronounce different words more correctly.
D They are able to reason clearly.

5 What does Karl Smith's claim about the facedness theory?

A It is extremely convincing.
B It has been confirmed by the whole academic community?
C It is generally accepted by music lovers.
D It contains a number of interesting exceptions.

6 How is facedness different from handedness?

A It's of interest to politicians.
B It's easy to detect.
C You are born with it.
D You develop it as you grow up.
TEST 5 Read the following newspaper article and then answer questions 1-6. Indicate the
letter, A, B, C or D of each question. Give only one answer to each question.

YOU ARE CAUGHT IN A FIRE THEN WHAT?

You are asleep in your bedroom on the fifth floor of a hotel. Suddenly you are woken at 1.30
am by the sound of breaking glass. You get out of bed to investigate, and look out into the corridor.
There is nothing to be seen, but there is a smell of smoke. There seems to be a fire. What would
your reactions be?
For many people they are never tested until it's too late - they are caught in a real fire. But
visitors to the International Fire Safety and Security Exhibition in London this week will have a
chance to test their responses, and the consequences, in a specially devised game, The Survival
Game. The game was devised at Surrey University where a team of scientists led by Dr David
Canter is researching human behaviour in fires under contract to the Fire Research Station. Their
game cannot reproduce the stresses of a real fire, but it does bring out two very important points:
the number of decisions that have to be taken on inadequate information, and the importance of
time. A correct decision at the beginning, for example, leads to a trouble-free escape, but there is no
way of telling which is the safe route. It is a matter of luck. And a delay closes even that route.
One of the most important discoveries the researchers have made from their hundreds of
interviews with people involved in fires is the problems of recognizing that there is a fire at all. A
fire is such an unusual experience that people will accept almost any other explanation of the early
signs of a fire first. In one hotel fire, for example, guests woken by the sound of breaking glass put
it down to someone smashing bottles outside - an event that had occurred on other occasions; in
another incident, residents in a block of flats, hearing cracking and popping noises, put it down to
vandals at work, made sure their doors were locked, and went back to the television.
Similarly, the research has shown that fire alarms are usually interpreted as drills, tests or
malfunctions - in the vast majority of cases quite correctly. The assumption implicit in all fire
regulations - that on hearing the alarm the occupants of a building will evacuate - bears little
relation to people's behaviour in practice.
In fact, faced with evidence of a possible fire nearly everyone seeks further information.
"There is a strong social stigma attached to getting it wrong," says David Canter. So people are
reluctant to make fools of themselves by rushing out into the street or calling the fire brigade at
what may be a false alarm. Even when a fire is definitely identified there is no immediate rush for
the doors. Smoke is the thing which most frequently persuades people to leave a building, but there
are differences in the reaction of various groups. Women are more ready to leave than men, the
young than the old, people at home than people at work, and people familiar with their surroundings
than people who are not.
Under the stress of a fire many people do things they afterwards see to have been
inappropriate. There is a record of one man who twice carried a bucket of water right past a fire
extinguisher. Nevertheless, the Surrey team feel that people "panicking" in fires is something that
often happens in press reports, but seldom in reality. Given the lack of information normal in fires
and the rapidly changing situation when a fire gets a hold, what appears to be senseless may be
perfectly reasonable behaviour in the circumstances. In the hotel fire of the game, for example,
someone who dashed for the stairs by the lift, found them impassable, dashed to the other stairs to
find them impassable too, and then returned to his room would behaving perfectly rationally. But to
somebody else he might appear to be dashing about at random.
The chief lesson to be learned from this research, Canter thinks, is that more emphasis might
be laid on the early detection of fires and training people to deal with them before they get out of
hand. Often the fire escape arrangements are not in normal use and are therefore forgotten when
they are really needed. Or they may be cut off. Of 85 people involved in fires where there was a fire
escape available they were successfully used by only five. The vast majority did not even try to use
them. Even the simple 999 call could be streamlined. Analysis of a large number of recordings has
shown that it often takes several minutes for the caller to get over the location of a fire. A little
training in the best way to elicit the information for the people at the other end could save precious
minutes.
 YOU ARE CAUGHT IN A FIRE THEN WHAT?

1 What can we learn from the game?

A how to choose a safe escape route
B which actions are most dangerous
C when to leave the building
D how to fight a fire successfully

2 Why did residents in the flats ignore the unusual sounds?

A They guessed there was a party next door.
B They wanted to watch the end of a television programme.
C They thought it was only people mending the road.
D They assumed young people were causing damage nearby.

3 What do people usually do when a fire alarm goes off?

A telephone the fire brigade
B pay no attention
C leave the building
D arrange to have the system tested

4 Why are people often slow to react when they think there's a fire?
A they're afraid of making a mistake
B they don't know the best way to leave the building
C they can't think what to do
D they don't want to leave their friends

5 If there was a fire in the Wonderpaint office building, who would probably be most
unwilling to leave?
A Miss White (30), the managing director's secretary
B Mrs Brown (40), the office cleaner
C Mr Green (60), the new managing director
D Mr Grey (50), the resident caretaker

6 The research suggests that most people need training in

A how to prevent fires from starting.
B how to make 999 calls.
C how to recognise the first signs of fire.
D how to fight a major fire.